Saturday, August 19, 2006

snakes on a plane

Attention all KC Blogosperians!

Would one of you please tell me if there's anywhere in Kansas City to experience this:
Should you see Snakes on a Plane? Yes, but if you weren’t in Theater 16 on Thursday night you’ve already missed the greatest showing there will ever be of this movie. I invited my friend Mike to the show, and he brought a printout of the Snakes on a Plane Participation Script. Well before showtime, he helped the audience learn the key lines: anytime the asian bad guy finishes a sentence, yell “…in bed!”; anytime a sentence ends in “snakes,” yell “motherfucking snakes!”; anytime Samuel L Jackson yells at someone, add “...bitch!” for emphasis; etc. It was a little like a Rocky Horror Screening, except that nobody had seen the movie yet. So when the entire theater found out that adding “in bed” actually works for damn near everything the asian guy says, it was hilarity topped with the joy of discovery.

I wouldn’t trust any reviewer who wasn’t in a theater with the electric atmosphere and audience participation I experienced last night. The story of SoaP’s development and production has been one of collaboration between the filmmakers, the fans, and especially Sam himself. For this movie to work that collaboration must extend to the screenings as well. Putting the burden of the entertainment on the film itself is a dereliction of duty by the audience. So print out the wiki, bring some rubber snakes, and do your part!

Via Owen

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Apparently it's fun even without the articipation script.

This from Seattlest:

Seattlest hit the first local showing of Snakes on a Plane last night at Cinerama. It was Seattlest, our friends, and about 1,000 high-school kids.

The ticket-holders line was a few hundred strong, stretching nearly the entire block betweeen Lenora and Blanchard. We slowly got drunk on clandestine vodka, and yelled at passing cars.

The theater itself (doors opened at 9) was raucous. Previews were welcomed with enthusiasm--it helped that they were for the new Borat movie (not to be missed), a new Tenacious D movie (perhaps to be missed) and Jackass 2 (we were drunk enough to find this hilarious)

SoaP began with a long credits sequence that contained *no* snakes. Our human protagonist, a BMX biker who can't act, is introduced, along with not one or two but three Red Bull product shots. At the first sight of Samuel L. Jackson, the crowd erupted with delight.

Then we met the passengers and crew. For one flight attendent, played by Julianna Margulies, it's her "last flight before retirement." Ya don't say. Many in the crowd were yelling out plot predictions as we met the passengers. It wasn't too hard to guess that the stuffy British man who complained about being moved to coach was going to meet a greusome demise. Which he did.

Good line from the audience--one of the crew says "Guess who's on the plane?" and a gallery wit shouts out "SNAKES!!!"

When the plane took off, there was a huge cheer from the crowd, and an even larger one when we first see the snakes. Lots of people in the audience were hissing. And we got our first glimpse of the finest cinematic tool in movie history...SNAKEVISION! Yes, we see from the snakes' perspective, which apparently is fuzzy and all green, like a broken oscillator.

After the initial attack, the passengers must band together. The gay flight attendent does his job--correctly identifying a snake's underbelly as teal, not blue to the snakes expert who's called in. This expert is appropriately nerdy and pretentious.

There's also a rapper with OCD on the plane. Really there's a host of characters, some of which are introduced and then disappear forever, like the kickboxer. Or there are personality quirks that we learn about but never come into play. It's like the movie have eight different screenwriters, which of course it probably did.

It's basically a bad movie. But the crowd makes it fun. Get drunk, yell, enjoy yourself. Do NOT go to a matinee.

P.S. The line you are waiting for is toward the end of the movie, obviously spliced in late. Good Times.